Click and Collect – Unleashing the power in your store

Online shopping has been a great addition to the retail landscape but the sometimes-exorbitant delivery costs can be a real turnoff.

Enter Click and Collect.

Nothing represents the online and instore channels working together better than a Click and Collect offering. As the name suggests, a shopper can purchase and item online and choose to collect it instore.

Sounds like a weird concept really when you think of what online stores were designed to do but one that is proving to be a great addition to retail operations. Is it the ability to browse online, find the product you want and buy it then and there and know you can go and pick it up at a convenient time to you? Is it the cost saving on shipping?

No matter what, Click and Collect shopping is not only helping to drive online sales but also instore, proving that both channels can very much work together. Besides locking in a sale, stores can improve foot traffic with customers having to come and pick up the goods they have purchased online, improving the chance of an additional sale being made once instore.

Retailers can even leverage online based business by offering their stores as a collection point something Big W and Woolworths have embraced.

The benefits of Click and Collect are definitely a win-win for all. Shoppers can have greater options by choosing to collect from stores. If they purchase an item of clothing but during collection decide they purchased the wrong size, they can exchange it there and then if picking it up instore.

The flexibility of picking your goods up whenever you find suitable is also a great benefit but the convenience of doing your research online and being able to lock the sale in there and then is probably the biggest driver for the Click and Collect shoppers.

Read more about the emerging retail technologies in our e-Book: What’s Next for Retail: Navigating Your Business from Now into the Future